The peculiarities of my childhood, of constantly moving through so many different cultures, of always being the outsider, may have made me extraordinarily self-sufficient, but it had also bred a certain detachment, a sense that...

I don’t know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer.

I accept that there are multitudes seeking God, seeking meaning, and so on, but if they reject atheism, I would rather they became modern-day Catholics or Jews than that they became Muslims.

When faced with the inevitable fatigue that comes with the recycling of speeches and the recycling of thoughts in a rather small stream of vortex, I am urged to not be ashamed of recycling.

I grew up in Los Angeles in a Quaker family, and for me being Quaker was a political calling rather than a religious one.

I’d rather wear jewels in my hair than anywhere else. The face should have the advantage of this brilliance.

I love characters who are clever and smart, and you have to run to catch up with. I think there’s something very appealing and rather heroic in that.

I’d much rather see a world where, when you make some quirky comment on a blog or news story or you upload a video clip, instead of just a moment of fame for your pseudonym,...

Acting was truly all that I ever wanted to do. I’ve always acted in plays and sang and played music, and you get to a certain age and think there’s nothing else that you’d rather...

Until the Eighties, Oslo was a rather boring town, but it’s changed a lot, and is now much more cosmopolitan. If I go downtown, I visit the harbour to see the tall ships and the...

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel’s interests to strengthen it by… continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing,...

I’d rather die than let somebody get the better of me.

We’re not interested in cloning the Michael Jordans and Michael Jacksons of the world, but rather assisting infertile couples that deserve the right to have a biological child to have one.

There is no other person on the face of this planet that I would rather sit and talk to than my wife.

If leaders in the space program had at its beginning in the 1940s, pointed out the benefits to people on earth rather than emphasizing the search for proof of evolution in space, the program would...

Besieged by lawsuits that threatened to engulf almost everyone at the White House, Clinton assistants shunned paper or e-mail records of their daily deliberations. One told me that he would go down the hall to...

I grew up in the era when Dan Rather hated Richard Nixon. He was a newsman, but you knew what his opinion was.

Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

I’m never getting too lonely because it’s the kind of disease where you might sit in front of the TV with three bags of biscuits, rather than communicate with the world.

I wouldn’t say I see things visually first, but what I do think is important, for a lot of screenwriters, is to not just think about the words on the page, but also the world...

I would rather be the tail of a lion than the head of a mouse.

IQ is a commodity, data is a commodity. I’m far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read ‘Tech Crunch,’ ‘Ad Age.’ I would rather be living...

I am not telling men to step away from speaking for women’s rights; rather, I am focusing on women to be independent to fight for themselves.

If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

Women would rather be right than reasonable.

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the true test of spirituality. But there have always have been those who’d rather...

I’m a British intern going in. I’m hoping that John will just kind of tackle it from who this person is and what she’s about rather than trying to go in on her culture. We...

I’ve never met or spoken to David Lee Roth, yet it’s rather ironic that even he’s saying Eddie’s lying about things. I’m saying he’s not telling the truth, yet Eddie insists that the two of...

I’d rather let the music speak for itself.

I’d rather play a character that was really, really different to me as to someone who is quite close to my character.

And I sense it was a rather constructed, almost half narrative fiction film in some ways. A lot of it was staged and manipulated to get those things in there that I knew to be...

Know people for who they are rather than for what they are.

There is a sense in which the United States ambassador speaks to the United States, as well as for the United States. I have always seen my role as a thermostat rather than a thermometer....

Rather than knowing more, I think I’ve got more open-minded.

I hate stuff in my pockets, can’t stand it. I’ll carry stuff in my hands rather than put it in my pockets.

Many models do yoga, but I find it boring. I’d rather be outdoors having fun.

My parents were early adopters, and I’ve been online since a rather young age. You should regard anything from 2001 or earlier as having been written by a different person who also happens to be...

It’s interesting to fantasize having a man sink his teeth into your neck for sustenance, knowing that it isn’t going to be terribly painful but rather very exciting.

Rather than constantly questioning and challenging our beliefs and being willing to think differently about the opportunities that are out there, we withdraw into what we’ve done before. And in a world that’s rapidly changing,...

Proactive giving is what you do when you’ve found your passion. It expresses your values, interests and concerns. It engages not just your dollars, but also your mind, time, skills and networks – the philanthropic...

So I observe life a little bit, rather than participating in it.

The capacity to make free choices is not something we either have entirely or not at all. Rather, choices become freer the more they are the result of our own capacity to reflect on and...

Blair worshipped Thatcherism, could see little or no wrong in it, believed that that was what the country needed, thought that there was no alternative, regarded it as a legacy that had to be built...

We ought not to be looking for something spectacular but rather develop a plan in conjunction with the White House to work our way out of this problem over the next six weeks.

Rather than have it the principal thing in my son’s mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the...

If I were to give advice, I would say to parents that they ought to be very careful whom they allow to mix with their children when young; for much mischief thence ensues, and our...

I would rather clean than beg.

Matter as matter rather than matter as symbol is a conscious political position, essentially Marxist.